Spain: pro-independency Catalonian entity wants to show the “bonds that historically have existed between Islam and Catalonia”

The Platform for the Language, pro-independence entity funded by the Generalitat (Catalan Autonomous Govt), claims that Muslim immigrants living in Catalonia should speak Catalan.To do this, they have published a guide called Salam al catalá which aims to bring the Catalan culture to the Muslims. Thus, they want to “show the bonds that historically have existed between both realities, and bring the country’s language to the Arabic-speaking Muslim population.”

The guide, published by the Directorate General of Religious Affairs, use “graphic and understandable” aspects of the Catalan language. For its part, the spokesman of the Islamic Council, Mohammed Halhoul, indicates that the Catalan “can open new horizons” to Muslims.

Director of Religious Affairs of the Government, Montserrat Coll, asked in the presentation of the guide that the Catalans do not change their language and do not speak Castilian immigrants. “The common language of Catalonia is the Catalan language,” he said. And so it seems because the guidance has been published only in Catalan and Arabic.

Catalonian pro-independency entities and political parties have traditionally favoured immigration which wasn’t from Spanish-speaking countries, specially from Arabic-speaking Muslim countries, as they thought that this people would speak Catalan much more easily. The result is a huge concentration of “hard-line” Islamic groups in Catalonia (Salafism, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, etc). The pressure on Muslim women is also shocking, with a Salafist Sharia court having condemn a woman to stoning, something which was the most extreme example of a community which “shields itself to create a separate country“, according to the Interior Ministry, as they perceive the non-Muslim as “ungodly”. Another Salafist imam coerced a woman to wear a hijab and another, Abdelwahab Houzi, Lérida’s imam, has spoken (among others) in support for polygamy, has been accused of polygamy and of mistreatment of women, refused to speak with a woman with make-up because “it could be tempting” (he added “(that journalist) didn’t respect me, if she had, she wouldn’t have presented herself before me with make up“), supports segreggation between Muslims and non-Muslims and has defended that:

“Muslims should vote for pro-independency parties, as they rely on us to get votes. But what they do not know is that, when they let us vote, we’ll all vote for Islamic parties because we do not believe in left and right. This will make us win local councils and from there with the great powers of Catalan autonomy, Islam will begin to be implemented“.

A Muslim Moroccan woman whose husband was at that meeting, held this last summer, said:

“My husband was there and said that people were afraid because of the religious police who didn’t let everybody enter. The agressively didn’t let people enter inside, people who did not suit them they were”…”that ‘religious police’ also requires women to wear the hijab – the veil – no matter what freedom they have to do it or not, and punish those who do not follow this line.

“The religious police warned their husbands and the Imam of the behavior of some believers to repress them, or even expel them or put them in evidence before the faithful to ensure that the sheep do not want to lose the way.

“But what angers my husband is that they want to encourage women to put the Burka and make a statement to the media that they willingly put it,” added the woman who, again according to the version of your husband says is a lie and that in the meeting there was a talk about forcing them to make this statement because in their words “they should be submissive of Islam and must do what we say.”

“The fear was evident at the meeting to the extent that a person, I’d rather not say his name, took his mobile phone to record the words for fear, and religious police acted”.

“The fighting was hard and could have been even more, my husband says he did not get to hit because there were many people in front of other mosques and they are looking for winning converts to the cause of the Salaf.

The imam has also been accused of keeping the money they donated for the construction of a new mosque (260,000€) and make them pray them in a prefabricated building.

Not surprisingly, the far-right ultranationalist Platform for Catalonia has called for the expulsion of all Muslims, whether being secular or extreme and whether they are against Islamization or against. As ever, once the extremers of one side are not stopped, but supported whether openly or de facto, the extremers of the other side are born…😦

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Islam in Europe Blog and Sharie, Claudia. Claudia said: Spain: pro-independency Catalonian entity wants to show the "bonds that historically have existed between Islam and … http://wp.me/pzviK-3Qr […]